Posted by Fred23 on January 13, 2005, at 18:56:48
In reply to ADAA view on long-term benzo usage, posted by Fred23 on January 12, 2005, at 17:51:50
> A while ago there was a thread about how to show a doctor that long-term benzo usage is appropriate in come situations.
> There is a paper on the ADAA (Anxiety Disorders Association of America) titled "Improving the Diagnosis & Treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Dialogue Between Mental Health Professionals and Primary Care Physicians" (c) 2004....Showing it to my primary care physician, while trying to explain that the 1.0 mg/day of Ativan he had reduced me to, down from the 1.5 mg/day originally given, after I had been asking for it to be raised to an allowable 2.0 mg/day, got his disapproval of my Internet research. He regards 2.0 mg/day of Ativan as a large dose, and asked if I'd consider an SSRI if it ever stopped working for me. I told him that I doubted that Ativan would stop working for me, and would never take an SSRI. He gave his opintion that there is nothing wrong with SSRIs, and that my research on the Interet is not as valid as the many years of education that doctors take to become doctors.
So he referred me to a real pdoc, which is what I had expected to happen.
Like the ADAA article explains, a primary care health setting really isn't a good place to do a serious investigation of anxiety.
poster:Fred23
thread:441285
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050113/msgs/441816.html